Afghan Warrior

2006-12-14

Freedom

Almost three decades of war destroyed Afghanistan. First it started between Mujahideen, communist government and the Soviets. And after the Soviets were defeated, the civil war started. The main reason for the civil war was the interference of the neighboring countries. Pakistan, Iran etc interfered in our country and supported different parties and militias for their own benefit so it caused the civil war. The civil war started in Kabul between different Mujahideen parties over the control of the capital, Kabul and then this war was sparked in some other parts of the country. During this time the Taliban movement started their activities from Kandahar and in few weeks they gained control of the southern provinces and started moving towards the capital Kabul. At first people were thinking that the Taliban may end the civil war, but it didn't happen. They made life hard for our people and banned our people from their personal freedom. Media was forbidden. There was no freedom of speech. TV was banned and there was only one radio station that belonged only to the Taliban, so life was really boring.

During this tragic period of time, the Afghan people suffered from basic needs of life like education, health care and other basic needs. We lost everything. Our economy went down and once 950,000 Afghani was equal to a US dollar. Our museum was looted, our tanks and weapons were sold to the neighboring countries, and our strong army was destroyed. Most people sold their houses and other things to get out of Afghanistan and millions of Afghans emigrated around the world.

Before the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, some of the northern allies were fighting between each other. But after the Taliban took the capital, Kabul, the northern allies became united to open a front against the Taliban, and the fighting continued between the Taliban and northern allies in northern provinces from 1996 till 2001. Sometimes the Taliban made advances and sometimes the northern allies did. Once the Taliban took Mazar-e-Sharif and many other nothern provinces and the nothern allies only had control of 2 provinces. But then the Taliban got defeated in Mazar-e-Sharif and the northern allies moved forward to 25km north of Kabul. People were hoping the northern allies would be able to defeat the Taliban, but the Taliban had a large number of fighters from different countries, mainly from Pakistan, better vehicles and equipment, so it was hard to defeat them. But our brave people were hoping to win.

This was the time when the world community left us alone. But the 9/11 tragic incident brought the free world's attention towards Afghanistan and the US government decided to overthrow the Taliban regime. The northern allies took advantage of the US air strikes and ousted the Taliban from the capital and other provinces. Some other small Afghan fighters also fought the Taliban in other parts of Afghanistan. Our current president Hamid Karzai was also fighting the Taliban with a group of his fighters. He was also injured. Another famous jihadi commander Haji Abdul Haq was also fighting with the Taliban but unfortunately he was arrested and killed by the Taliban before the US helicopters could rescue him. So everywhere people started fighting against the Taliban and they got defeated.

Afghans are very brave people. We are not scared of fighting. We defeated great powers in the past. We could have defeated the Taliban if we had external support. Some rich countries were behind the Taliban and it was hard to fight them. If the nothern allies had at least the air support they could have defeated the Taliban. The other reason that it was hard for the northern allies to defeat the Taliban was sadness of the people from the northern allies because the northern allies fought against each other in order to get power and thousands of civilians were killed in this war. So therefor many people were upset from the northern allies.

We don't want to be a charity case. Afghans are proud people who want to make their own way in the world but at the moment we need the support of the free world. We need more emphasis on training the Afghan army so that Afghans can take over the fighting. We need enough support to defeat the Taliban. We don't have a shortage of brave Afghans - we have brave people and we can defeat the Taliban with the support of the free world. The Taliban are not strong enough to create any civil war at the moment. Therefor they carry out terrorist attacks which mainly kill innocent civilans, and if we have the support of the free world we can defeat the enemies soon. But if the world community abandons us, Afghanistan will go back to civil war. We don't want to be part of the 3rd world. We need the support of the world community at least for 5 more years. By that time our army will be very powerful and professional and our economy will have improved and after that we will be able to use our own rich natural resources and it will improve our economy and we will be able to spend our own money and one day Afghanistan will be a rich country who will be able to support other poor countries and we hope this won't be so far.

The Afghans are not the enemy of the US or any other country. I hope that we will be strong allies forever and have good political and economic relationship and I hope Afghanistan will be able to contribute its forces to join with the US and other countries in the free world to liberate more people. Freedom is not something that only white Christians deserve. People from different religions and colors deserves freedom and we must join hands together to bring true freedom.

2006-12-05

The NATO Summit

During the two-day summit in Latvia, NATO leaders agreed to provide an extra 2500 troops for combat operations against the Taliban insurgents. This summit meeting was very important towards strengthing peace and progress for the Afghan people, and the Afghan people hope the NATO member countries contribute more troops to Afghanistan in order to defeat the enemies and strengthen security. This is the first dangerous combat mission for NATO troops and they can easily make their mission successful if they do not lose hope. The NATO Afghan mission is possible to succeed if NATO allies continue their commitment to Afghanistan.

There are a few thousand NATO troops in northern and western provinces, and the security situation is better in these provinces, so in this case half of these troops should be redeployed to the southern and eastern provinces which are the main combat zones, so they can help other allies in the war against the insurgents. There are 32,000-strong NATO forces in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. In the presence of these forces, the insurgents have been increasing their activities. Therefore there is a need for some extra troops. 32,000 NATO troops are enough to defeat the insurgents if they increase their operations against the enemies and use more of their soldiers in some provinces. There are a large number of these troops inside bases and their operations are around the areas of the province they have their bases. If these troops expand their operations to the main combat zones, it would be very useful to prevent enemy activity.

The recent joint operations of the Afghan Army and NATO forces have been very successful. Dozens of the enemy have been killed in the southern provinces. The joint operations have been more successful and have had less civilian casualties and if both parties continue such operations it will be very useful for both parties. The Afghan Army will learn better combat techniques and they also know the language and communicate better with the locals. And in order to prevent civilian casualties, NATO troops need to have accuracy in their intelligence because some commanders have personal disputes and deliver wrong reports. So better intelligence will make their mission more successful and the locals will show better cooperation.

There are some NATO member countries that have populations against the deployment of their soldiers to Afghanistan, and they want their troops to come home soon. Afghans appreciate their contributions and we hope they go back to their countries after they complete their mission in Afghanistan and it will not be very long. According to the Canadian military's official report, Canada might not be able to keep its troops in Afghanistan beyond 2009, in order to prepare for the massive security requirements for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. We understand that their country comes first. They have done a great job already, and in my opinion by the end of 2009 the Afghan Army will be capable of handling the security responsibility if the NATO allies pledge more support in order to train the Afghan Army. The sooner we have a strong army, it will be for the benefit of all the NATO member countries. But at this moment we do need more NATO troops to be sent to Afghanistan, not only to fight the terrorists, but also to carry out reconstruction efforts, so that by the time they leave Afghanistan, it will be a free, beautiful, democratic country.

2006-12-03

New York Times

Hello Dear Readers,

I have been writing for the New York Times for the past 3 weeks. So I have not been able to post any articles on my blog. After the contract ends on December 15 I will start writing for my own blog again and I will write at least one blog a week. I have been busy with my job but I will have more in the coming weeks. Here is a link for my articles in the New York Times. I hope everyone will take a look.